TUNJI AJIBADE FROM PUNCH
How is your tribe perceived by others? The question is for all tribes but I direct it specifically at Ndigbo. Perception matters and here I continue from where I left off last Friday about the image Ndigbo project in the polity. I conclude next Friday. After the effort to get Nnamdi Kanu released under former President Muhammadu Buhari didn’t work out, some South-East governors continued to announce how they would get the Federal Government to release him. I shook my head each time I saw these images. Tact, silent diplomacy, is crucial to finding political solutions. It’s one attribute I continue to wait to see Ndigbo exhibit in every national issue.
There’s as well that claim over who began moviemaking in Nigeria. While Ndigbo were busy at war in the late 1960s, “Bisi, daughter of the river” was shot in Lagos. Chief Hubert Ogunde was shooting for the cinema, same as Baba Sala and Alade Aromire in the 1980s. But “Living in Bondage” shot in 1992 is being claimed as the origin of Nollywood in Nigeria and many of those who make this claim are from the East. Gurus in the entertainment industry who lived through this period such as Alagba Wale Adenuga, owner of WAP TV, have been expressing their dismay over this claim. Yet some elements continue to spread the wrong narrative, like the incomplete narrative by Ohaneze Ndigbo that only Ndigbo made “modern Lagos” possible. Is the mentality that anything which doesn’t have Ndigbo in it never happened?
After the few illustrations of the image cast as well as the perception others may have of Ndigbo in recent times, I turn to the implications for Ndigbo’s quests for a better deal in Project Nigeria, including their desire to produce a president. Implications here for me are largely about how Ndigbo are perceived, how they come across to others. It’s not helpful that a people are mostly perceived negatively. But it can happen when the posture taken continually makes negative sentiments to be expressed about them. When I state things like this I take cue from my own people. There are Yoruba sayings and practices that inform how a well-brought-up Yoruba person would behave under certain situations, even when no one else is there to guide them.
When some made jests about the health of a presidential candidate, linking their indiscretion to the Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, he publicly refuted them. Soyinka adds that where he comes from no one makes mockery of the physical health of a fellow human being, let alone an elderly person. That’s the manner a Yoruba elder would talk. I’m waiting to see elders among Ndigbo tell younger people to not say things that would get people of other tribes annoyed with them. In fact, in his “modern Lagos” submission, Iwuanyanwu made comments that could get people of other tribes upset with Ndigbo. I don’t state that he shouldn’t praise the enterprising spirit of his people. But the circumstances under which he said what he said, with the nuances, made him come across like he too wanted to ‘rub it in’ for Ndigbo’s Yoruba hosts. Elders, leaders, don’t go about issues this way and I give an example.
The issue of herdsmen has been on for some time. When the Sultan of Sokoto attended a gathering of Fulani group recently, he expressed his concern over the image herdsmen had among fellow Nigerians. He said this should be corrected and added that the issue and more would be discussed behind camera with Fulani leaders even before they left the venue. The Sultan didn’t “rub it in” where his fellow Nigerians were concerned. He spoke humbly in a manner that would not put aggrieved Nigerians off, in a way that would not further stoke controversies. When Iwuanyanwu spoke at the Ndigbo meeting in Lagos (and I quoted him last Friday) I expected he would say to his listeners that they should desist from needless controversial comments some were making. He wouldn’t be the first to do so. The Lagos politician, Chief Jerry Igbokwe, once counselled fellow Ndigbo in Lagos against ‘rub it in’ comments and I examined his submission here. I expected Iwuanyanwu to say Ndigbo should concentrate on their tasks and continue to build solid relationships with people wherever they find themselves.
Such a manner of talking attracts goodwill to a people, informs how they are perceived, assuring Nigerians that whatever the controversies are, elders among Ndigbo have no intention of encouraging provocative comments. Iwuanyanwu could make his praise comments to “heroes” and “pioneers” behind the camera and he would still have made his Ndigbo listeners happy. There are things you say behind the camera because as a leader you’re concerned about how fellow Nigerians read you. You’re not afraid; you’re only being diplomatic, tactful. Elders of a people should talk in ways that attract more goodwill. My tribe says: “Ejo la a ko, enikan ki i k’oja”; how to suavely present a case and win is what one learns, not how to quarrel. How do Ndigbo come across in their recent outings – concerning Lagos as “no man’s land”, threats over more ministerial appointments, Kanu’s release, Nollywood etc.?
Without engaging in needless arguments with host communities, living and trading in other parts of the country alone give impressions. What is perceived of a people as a result can have far-reaching consequences. I illustrate with a comment made by the late Premier of Northern Nigeria, Sir Ahmadu Bello. Asked by a foreign journalist to describe Ndigbo, Bello said Ndigbo were a people who, when they lived among you, would want to take over the place from you. Right or wrong, with the claim by some Ndigbo that Lagos is a “no man’s land”, can the reader separate the perception southwesterners have of Ndigbo from Bello’s comment?
